Let's Go Do Something We'll Regret

Yesterday was, um... Hang on.

Okay yesterday was Saturday. But it's only been Sunday for a little over half an hour.

Friday. Let's talk about Friday.

I woke up in the afternoon and after getting ready for the day, I took my motorcycle down to Devi's to meet Joanna and Amanda. Joanna and Amanda were on the phone when I arrived. I said "Hi" and Amanda asked "Is that your father?" and I said "What?" and then not much else happened.

I talked to Joanna while waiting for Amanda to get off the phone. While that happened, two attractive white girls walked in and talked about whether they were going to stay in Devi's and sit at the table in front of us or leave, never to be seen again. They decided to stay, so that was nice.

Also, it was my dad at the other table. He was at Devi's having lunch with my mum and I had no idea at the time that he was going to be there. Devi's is like some kind of event horizon for coincidental meetings. Every time we're there we have to see at least one person we already know. The food's still pretty lame, though.

This is a picture of my father. I'm not sure why I took it.

Anyway, when Amanda finished her conversation with her mother over the phone, I told Jo and her how I hot I thought the girls in front of us were ("very") and how badly I wanted to talk to them ("very"). I told them about how I had missed opportunities to talk to pretty girls at Pizza Hut on Ian's birthday and at the bowling alley at KLGCC and such, and how I really wanted to talk make sure this didn't end up being another thing I regretted not doing anything about.

Amanda and Joanna told me that I needed to get the perfect pick-up line or something before I approached them, which I thought was ridiculous. I told them I just needed some kind of motivation and then I'd do it. They told me that I couldn't just go up and talk to someone. I told them I could, and I got up and talked to this elderly stranger who was sitting alone at the other side of the restaurant to prove it.

When I got back Joanna and Amanda still thought I needed a pick-up line, but I told them I wasn't looking to pick anyone up. I just wanted to go talk to the girls so that I would not regret not talking to them. I asked Joanna and Amanda to give me some kind of motivation, but they couldn't come up with anything.

The girls at the other table were done with their meal and they were ready to go, so I knew I had to do something soon. Fortunately, Amanda told me that she would let me talk for 10 hours uninterrupted if I went to talk to the girls. That was all the motivation I needed. Before I got up to talk to the girls, I told Amanda that I would only talk for 30 minutes because 10 hours is a bit unrealistic.

I got up and walked over to the table in front. Joanna ran over to my old spot to get a better view. I stood for a few seconds to think of something to say before I finally leaned over and won 30 minutes of uninterrupted rambling.

"Excuse me; my friends over there were wondering how good they looked, and I was wondering if you could help."

Joanna and Amanda were not expecting that at all. When the girls asked which friends, I pointed out Joanna and Amanda for them, and Amanda and Joanna started frantically pointing at each other. When the girls asked which one, I said both. I asked for an objective rating on a scale of one to ten. They were reluctant to answer at first, but I told that my friends would probably never see them again so they wouldn't have to worry about hurting anyone's feelings. They finally settled on a rating of somewhere between seven and eight for both Amanda and Joanna. I thanked them and returned to my table.

I told Jo and Amanda what they had said and they accused the girls of being liars. Whatever, I think seven is a fair judgement for how they were looking that day.

I was very happy that I had talked to the girls since now I wouldn't have any regrets about it. Joanna said it didn't count because I didn't get their names and numbers, but that was never my objective in the first place. It's not like I'd have a chance with them anyway.

After that I rambled on for the 30 minutes that I had won and I enjoyed it. I said a lot of stupid shit, but I think I also said one or two really clever things as well. Overall I'm pleased with how it turned out. Joanna filmed it on her phone, but she hasn't uploaded it yet and I don't think she ever will [edit: she did, the links are in the next post, there are almost an equal amounts of dislikes as likes but somehow being hated by the YouTube community is one of the many, many things that affects my self-esteem]. Amanda and Joanna seemed quite bent on figuring out whether I was gay or not. Women arouse me far more then men do, so I'm gonna go ahead and say that I'm not.

When that was over I drove Joanna and Amanda to Sunway in Amanda's car. We talked about stuff and listened to music and played word association because Joanna and Amanda kept answering "both" or "neither" for This or That, and the game is no fun if people do that.

We dropped Joanna off at her house. Oh yeah, she had a dog. Here's a couple of pictures of it and me:

I look better in the dark and I don't like what that says about me.

After dropping off Joanna I drove back with Amanda, but she was too tired to provide great conversation. I didn't mind though. I let her take a nap while listening to Regina Spektor. The traffic jam was pretty bad. Wanna read something creepy? No? Okay then, because I was just about to say "there's something different about looking at a person when they're asleep. When they're awake you see all their defenses and mannerisms and expressions but when you're asleep you just see... them." Shit, that sounds like that queer vampire's inner monologue from when he was perving on Bella whatsherface as she slept in Twilight.

Amanda woke up and then we went to pick up Geraldine. We parked in an alley and talked about friends and siblings and how Imagine is not a sad song, and then we drove around for a bit. Geraldine got in the car and I let Amanda take the driver's seat, and then I got on my motorcycle and went home.

Ian and I went to the Outback Steakhouse after that.

I heard That's Amore and All Shook Up on the best radio station on Astro and then I went to bed.

I woke up on Saturday at 3:30am. My dad drove my mum to meet up with some people so she could go to Penang for a seminar, and then he drove me to work. We picked up some McDonald's along the way. I had ordered sausage McMuffin with egg meals. I paid for one of them and ate both of them. I talked with my dad and then I went to work.

At work I earned a just little less than RM100 doing this:

Around ten hours later work was over and I was napping outside waiting for Aunty Rosie to arrive and drive me home. I listened to a playlist I had made on my phone specifically for naps. It had taken me something like half an hour to create, but it was so worth it. Naps with music are the best naps.

Back at home I got changed into something less presentable and more comfortable and then I went to sleep. It was five o'clock or thereabouts. When I woke up again it was seven something.

Hannah thinks I have tickets to Paramore or something.

I ate barbecued pork ribs for dinner. Joanna dreamed about Amanda eating pork ribs earlier. It's a coincidence.

I'm tired.

I started a blog on Tumblr today. I have no more followers on my Twitter.

I need to get more space on my phone. I don't have any space left for all the Elvis and additional Jonathan Coulton I want to put on it.

I'm tired and I have to be awake in two and a half hours. Goodnight.

My desk

My contracts (Part-Time, Full-Time, Hannah)

Fifth Day of Training

So, Wednesday.

I didn't actually fall asleep after writing my last post. After my shower I kinda just climbed into bed and lay there for half an hour until my alarm went off, then I went about getting ready for the day and such.

Aunty Rosie needed the car for something so I couldn't take the car. Instead, I went with Aunty Rosie so she could drive it back and use it for whatever. We left at around seven fifteen. I ordered McDonald's for breakfast since I was early enough to finally have the time to do so. We used the drive through, so I didn't have enough time to perfectly optimize the pricing, but I ended up with an order of RM27 that included three hash browns, three ice milos, one sausage McMuffin for me and one sausage McMuffin with egg for Aunty Rosie, and also some hotcakes and an extra sausage patty. By right Aunty Rosie's portion should have cost RM5, but she paid RM10. I'll fill up her car a little more next time.

I stopped at 1 Tech Park so I could get out and put my stuff down to eat while Aunty Rosie got in the driver's seat and went back home. I managed to construct the following monstrosity from my order:
It's a bun, then a piece of hotcake with syrup, then a hash brown, then a patty, then a hash brown, then a patty, then a hash brown, then another piece of hotcake with more syrup. It was amazing. The syrup was the key.

After breakfast I went to the roof to enjoy the cool morning air and the nice view. I had my phone with me so I had music to enhance the atmosphere.

I arrived in the training room at eight. Hariz told us that he had bad news and good news. He delivered the bad news first: Since Jonathan and I had passed the test, we would be going live on the floor (taking calls, basically) that day. The good news was that the others could retake the test, so they wouldn't have to worry about failing the training or anything. I don't see how us going live on the floor was bad news, though. It was more like two pieces of good news.

Jonathan and I went out to buddy up while the rest of them retook the test. I was with Koshla again, which is good, because she's very professional. There were very few people on the floor so there were a lot of calls waiting and people were more frustrated than last time. There were less wrong numbers, though.

After that we went back in and learnt stuff, and then we had a lunch break. I spent half of it in front of the computer, and then I went upstairs to check out the empty floor. It was only when I arrived that I realized it was full that day because a mobile blood donation unit was there.

I was greeted on my way in by my department's business manager, Edward. He was on his way out. I walked in and filled in some forms, and then a nurse pricked my finger to get some blood to check my blood type. I'm type A. I was sent to the doctor, who asked if there was anything I wanted to ask before the donation started. I asked her if the nurse was correct when she said that it was okay for me to donate even though I had bipolar disorder. The doctor told me that it wasn't okay, because even though my blood was fit for use, bipolar disorder is caused by a chemical imbalance, which can be brought on by a loss of blood, which meant that I could never donate blood ever. This was disappointing, but I guess it was for my own good.

I went back to training and learnt some stuff for a while, and then we had a break. I took a nap. During the break, Jack came in and gave Sean some recruitment forms to fill because the ones we had filled after the interview were with Roy Morgan. Sean passed me mine when I woke up. After training I filled them in and gave them to Jack.

Aunty Rosie drove over with Susanna to pick me up. She told me that we were going to Bangsar Village to buy Susanna a movie because Hannah wouldn't download it for her. I told Aunty Rosie to just save the money because I'd download whatever movie she wanted. We went to pick up my contact lenses instead. When we got to the optometrist, I realized I had no money, so we went back and I got my money from my dad, then I drove over and got the lenses.

When I got home again I didn't do much before I was asleep on the floor again, this time in front of the TV. Nobody woke me up for dinner (again), so I had to reheat everything when I woke up around four hours later at 11pm. I ate my carbonara while watching Deadliest Warrior on Ian's computer. I had known from the list of weapons that the SEALs would win, even though I think the Israeli commandos are more awesome.

So I never ended up answering calls on Wednesday, but today (Thursday), I will. Chances are, in around five and a half hours I'll be on the phone providing people in Australia and New Zealand with the best support options for all their HP Desktop related problems. Yay!

Fourth Day of Training

It's 3:30am, Wednesday morning. I took a nap for too long on the floor. I'll get to now later, right now let's go back to Tuesday.

On Tuesday I woke up a few minutes before six after my alarm went off for the third or fourth time. I had let it snooze a bit because I didn't have to climb the stairs on Tuesday so I figured it would be fine.

I woke up and read my Bible and only fell asleep a little a bit. I was done at 6:15am, so I set my alarm for six forty and took a nap. When the alarm went off I tried to hit snooze and after that I can't remember what happened, but the next time I woke up it was seven thirty. If my mum hadn't woken me up I would have been late as hell.

I quickly took a shower and brushed my teeth and all that, and then I left for work. It was raining like mad, but I still managed to arrive in the training room around ten minutes late, and training hadn't started yet, either.

We were buddying up again, but since there were only two cables, we could only have two trainees buddying up at a time. I decided not to be in the first group and so I went to take a nap while waiting for my turn.

When my turn did come, I got to be buddied with this lady named Koshla (her floor name was Kay) who I would much prefer to Raj if I ever had to call customer service. My time with her started with her answering maybe eight wrong numbers (people calling about laptops or printers or workstations when this was actually the desktop number) before the actual people needing assistance came in. She handled the calls really well.

After the buddying was over, we registered fake customers and fake assets onto the fake customer service database for training. That took a while. We only broke for lunch at one fifteen, which is either forty-five or an hour and fifteen minutes later than usual, so I was really hungry.

I drove to McDonald's for lunch since earlier I had been browsing through the McDonald's websites of various different countries to see what they had that we didn't and vice versa. I am now jealous of the USA's breakfast options and aware that everyone but us has chicken selects. Also I have to enjoy McDonald's breakfasts as much as possible while I'm here, since they don't have 'em in the Netherlands.

After lunch I went back to 1 Tech Park and talked to the guys about religion and pepper spray (Eddie once used a bottle of the stuff to defend himself from four guys on the train who crowded around him and were trying to rob him. They only caught one of them, I think), and then I went up to see if the roof was open. It was. The roof is pretty cool.







After I was done with the roof I went down to to a different room where we were taught about some other stuff, and then we had to take an exam. There were two questions we had to get right to pass, and all but one of us got them wrong. Anyway, the passing mark was 80% and I got 83.33%. Jonathan got 91.67%. Everyone else didn't make the grade.

Hariz told us to be there by eight the next day because we might be talking to Edward, the business manager for HP.

I drove home and I'm not really sure what I did after that. I think I set up for a nap on the floor because I recently downloaded a whole big bunch of podcasts and I found the best way of listening to them was by lying on the floor next to my computer. I brought a couple of pillows and a blanket so it would be more comfortable, then I got called for dinner, which was fried chicken and rice. I just ate the chicken.

I turned on the podcast and lay down to listen to it, but I think I was asleep before the first segment even started. That couldn't've been later than eight, I think. Anyway, the next time I opened my eyes it was midnight. I nodded off a bit more after that and it was three in the morning.

So now it's almost four twenty so I'll have an hour's sleep left, probably less I've still got to do my exercise and take a shower. Man, my sleep schedule must be really messed up now.

Third Day of Training, Lost One of My Jobs

So today I lost a job. Well, I never had it to begin with, but I thought I had it, but I actually don't. I've still got another job, though, so it's not that bad.

I started off today by waking up early and then falling asleep again while reading my Bible which meant that I had to rush to leave the house in time to arrive at work by 8am. It was exactly 8am when I reached the training room.

There was nobody there to train us, so after an hour we were told that we could go for breakfast while our trainer arrived from Rawang. I went to McDonald's. It was pretty dang tasty.

When I got back there was still no trainer, and then we were told that our trainer's car broke down so we could go for lunch while they found someone else to train us. I used the lunch break to listen to music while napping.

Finally we got a trainer. I forgot what his name was, I think it starts with a P. Anyway, he was quite good. Hariz was better, but then again this guy's speciality wasn't training so he did quite well considering. He taught us how to register a customer and an asset. That took about two hours, and then he went home at four.

We sat around for another half hour before I went out to ask what we were waiting for. We were told we could go.

Sharmila (Shamini? The recruitment lady I met the first time I ever went to Datacom, with my dad) told me that Roy Morgan had a problem and they couldn't take me on. I asked why Jack had offered me dual jobs in the first place if this was the case, and she told me he wasn't aware and it was actually their department's problem. I went up to check with the Roy Morgan department and Kelly told me that the government had a new rule in place whereby if a part-timer worked a certain amount of hours, the company would have to pay for their insurance and pension or something involving acronyms. This was only coming in to effect in October, and Jack wasn't aware of it when he offered me the HP job when I was applying for Roy Morgan. Anyway, all this meant was that it wasn't anybody's fault, really, but as long as I worked in HP I couldn't work in Roy Morgan because then I'd clock too many hours and they'd have to go through the hassle of figuring which department would pay for everything and that wasn't something they wanted to do. So I guess I've got a lot more free time but a lot less money. Oh well.

In the lobby I talked to Sean, Ganesh, and Eddie about what was going on with HP and why I couldn't work both accounts and such. I'd mention what I said but I'm not sure if it's supposed to be confidential or whatever so I'll just play it safe and say nothing. Anyway at the end of today's training I think we only earned two hour's worth of salary since that's how long we were trained, which meant that we wasted six hours. Oh well, at least we had internet access.

After work I drove to the optometrist to order new contact lenses. She gave me a check up and went over my history. I've been wearing the same pair of glasses for three years now. Apparently it's bad for my eyes since my right eye astigmatism is increasing, but my dad probably won't pay for new glasses unless mine break, and I have never broken a pair of glasses. It's always been someone else's fault. But yeah, the optometrist gave me a good deal for contact lenses: six months' supply plus two free left eye lenses to pair with the two right eye ones that I have left over. While I was there I helped her mum view a slideshow of wedding pictures. There wasn't really a problem, it was just that Windows 7 streamlining made it difficult to figure out what to do next.

Back at home I told my dad about what was going on with the contact lenses and how I had gotten six months' worth of lenses plus a check-up plus two additional left eye lenses for only RM20 more than the other store was offering. He doesn't like the way the optometrist does business or something so I felt the need to justify everything to him. I like her, though, she's familiar and friendly. Of course she'll try to convince us to take the more expensive option, but then again she is running a business and that is why we have discretion and the right to go elsewhere. Anyway I'm rambling.

I ate a large-ish dinner that was quite okay and then I watched TV and and then I took a nap. I will be very surprised if anyone other than me reads this whole post by the time it's done. I doubt even I will ever read it again. But yeah, I did some boring stuff and then I wrote this and after this I'm going to do my exercise and take a shower and then I'll try my luck at sleeping in bed and if I'm still having trouble sleeping (I had trouble sleeping last night, by the way. Ended up falling asleep a little after 3am to a BBC news update), I'll just turn on the news; the news never fails to put me to sleep.

Okay then goodnight. To anyone reading this, try to kiss someone soon. I hear that's pretty fun.

Nobody Ever Thinks About Me

The title is hyperbole. Still, I'm hardly feeling extremely happy right now.

So today I had my "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" alarm set for 7:42am, and then I had "I Feel Fantastic" set for 7:50am. This way I could be roused out of a deeper sleep by my first alarm, then (because it is a relatively gentle song), I could sleep through it until my second alarm went off so I could get ready for the day.

Just my luck, then, that my dad woke us all up at 7:40am by turning off the air conditioning and fan and opening the curtains. Ian got out of bed first, which meant that instead of plenty of time to get ready by virtue of being the first one up, I would have to wait for Ian and Jan to get ready first and then rush to get ready before 8:30am. If only my dad would have waited ten more bloody minutes, then my morning would have been perfect.

Anyway, I got up and read my Bible while waiting for everyone to get done. Jan took his own sweet time, but I still managed to be ready to go right before 8:30am because I didn't have any contact lenses to put in.

Ian and my dad went in one car to breakfast while the rest of us (and Ebony) went in my mum's. Someone else had ordered the food while I went to buy a copy of the NST and some gum to stay awake in church, so I didn't get any extra hash browns and the order hadn't really been optimized. Oh well, at least my McMuffin was free of cheese and also very fresh and delicious.

After McDonald's, everyone except Susanna, Jan, and my mum went back with my dad because my mum was taking a longer route so she could pick up Aunty Catherine. Along the way I talked about why I was so upset about yesterday, but then my dad interjected and talked for fifteen minutes about mass communication or something, and then I finally got tired of listening and asked if I could have my say so I could finish what I was saying, then Ian got upset and swore at me in front of Ebony and Hannah and my dad. I was being quite an obnoxious shit, though, so you can't blame him entirely for it. I think a 85/15 split (majority Ian) is reasonable.

Anyway, church was quite empty due to the holidays or something. I got to be in charge of the projections. I did the word jumble during my down time. I would have continued with the jumble, but my mum was giving the sermon so I went outside to show I was listening. I found that our church has new Bibles, the second version of the NLT. After the sermon I asked my mum to get me one for Christmas since it's got an infobox before each book and also because it's quite a bit easier to read. Oh yeah, I also need to tithe double next week because the ushers were going out for collection instead of having us come to them, but they didn't come to me in the projectionist room so I couldn't give my RM5. I tried signalling them but they are children so they didn't notice.

While at church I had decided I was going to sleep really early, so I scheduled in my phone to blog at six and exercise and shower at seven so I could be in bed by eight so I could still have plenty of rest before I woke up at five to get ready for work. I'd also hopefully have time for another McDonald's breakfast.

After church we went to visit my grandparents who were over at my aunt's place. Ian and I went with my dad first and the rest of the family was to show up later. There wasn't anyone there at first except for Cinta, so I played with her for a bit until Uncle Simon showed up. He told me to be careful with Cinta because she had hurt her paw, so I stopped playing so rough with her. A little later Dexter showed up and Ian and I told him about our jobs. Then my aunt Mina came out and then she left with her husband to go somewhere for a while and Dexter went to say bye.

Soon my grandpa came out and my dad told us to ask him about his war stories, so we did. My granddad has a lot of good stories, but he doesn't really tell them often. When the History Channel did a documentary on the Malayan Emergency, they interviewed a bunch of my granddad's friends for the documentary, but he declined to be interviewed because he didn't want to travel all the way to KL, and I guess he's modest or something. All that aside, he's also still bound by the official secrets act, but if the government wants to go after him for such a trivial offence after all he's done for this country then Malaysia is a much shittier place than I thought.

Anyway, an example of one such story that he never tells is when he was in a squad of four people and this British guy was supposed to cover his back. However, the Brit failed to notice a communist sniper in a tree, and so the sniper took a shot at my grandfather. Fortunately for the two most recent generations of my family, the gun misfired. It wasn't very fortunate for the sniper, though, since my grandfather turned around and shot him after that. The British guy would have gotten in deep shit with his superiors if it had gotten out that my he failed to watch my grandfather's back, so he bribed my grandpa not to tell anyone, and he didn't. He didn't even tell us, we had to hear it from my dad.

Anyway we talked to my grandfather and we talked among each other as well. I heard about how my grandfather had interrogated Dexter's girlfriend last night and how my other cousin lives in fear of my granddad meeting his girlfriends. Daryl came out and talked for a while before he went to his open house. Wicket (or Wicked. I'm not really sure which and he responds to both, so it doesn't matter) came out, too, so I played with him for a bit.

Here are doggie pictures:







I got a miscall from a withheld number, which worried me because it might have been about work. I called Sean but he hadn't heard anything. My dad called the house and he found that they were leaving soon. I called the house to ask Hannah to bring my swimming trunks and my sandals. Things winded down after that and they were supposed to arrive in twenty minutes or so, so I took a nap on a chair outside while waiting. My dad woke me up to tell me to go inside to nap, so I did.

When I woke up again, it was five o'clock and Ian and my dad had already gone home. My mum was rushing me to get in the car and I didn't even get to say goodbye to the dogs. I was upset because nobody woke me up to even check if I wanted to swim. It seemed so stupid that they would just assume that when my swimming trunks finally arrived I would just want to continue napping. I got very upset. Hannah apparently had wanted to wake me up to tell me they were there, but she didn't; instead she got changed and jumped in the pool and asked for someone to wake me up but nobody heard her and she didn't follow up. Also apparently Wicket jumped in the pool and swam with them for a while, so I missed that too.

So the drive home was hardly pleasant. I got on the computer and started blogging at around 6:30 (you'll know exactly when, just check the timestamp on this. That's the time at the start of composition, not the time of posting.) so I was already behind schedule, and then there was a hassle about whether Ian or I would go out to buy dinner and where we'd buy it from and what we'd buy and stuff that ended with me very upset and my parents talked to me for a while and then I took a break for twenty minutes to calm down and then I talked to my dad and now we're done and it's almost 8:10 and I'm barely done with this blog post, so I'm an hour behind. I think I'll probably end up in bed at around ten or something. Bleh.

Oh well, at least I get nuggets for dinner. I hope they remembered the barbecue sauce.

Oh yeah, Milan (and the rest of you guys, but Milan is who ctrl+Fs), I told all last night's secrets to Hannah; I hope that's okay. I don't think there's an overlap between people my sister knows and people that you know. Her friend Ebony was also in the room but Ebony is very quiet and there is even less overlap, so you should be fine. Also I got no Facebook messages or wall-to-wall stuff from you so I'm assuming that last night's post checked out in terms of not revealing any secrets.

Mehhhhhhhh

I feel very... apathetic. Maybe that isn't the right word. If I knew the proper definition of ennui then I'd call it ennui, but I don't so I won't.

Today was okay, I guess. We had McDonald's for breakfast, so that was a good start. I didn't fall asleep in church, but then I haven't ever since I figured out that I could chew gum to stay awake and that was ages ago, so I guess it's nothing notable.

There was no Alpha or anything after church, so Ian and I went to have lunch with Clement, Jonathan, and Esther (Jonathan's Esther, not Clement's). We talked about Genting and gambling and card counting and how to win at roulette (realistically you can't due to table limits and even without them you'd only win a fraction of a fraction of your capital each time) and then we moved on to talking about insurance and real estate and how renting is better than buying. It was a lot more interesting than it sounds. Well, maybe not; Esther and Jonathan looked pretty bored. Anyway we left after the adults arrived because by then we'd finished eating and also because it was kind of awkward talking with them around.

Ian and I realized that our parents had left without us. My dad thought we were going back with my mum, and when my mum saw that my dad had left she assumed we went with him. Fortunately Clement could give us a lift back, so we went with him and discussed Shutter Island and stuff.

When we got back home I went on the computer for a while, and then I had to go drop my mum off to a meeting and pick Hannah up from Royal Rangers, which she's apparently going to join later on. Susanna and I found some swings to play on while waiting for Susanna. I used my phone to play some music. Fun fact: the proper music can improve almost anything by at least 50%. Anyway, Hannah we went to buy doughnuts and drinks, and then we went home and I took a long nap.

When I woke up I didn't feel like blogging yet, so I watched the last few episodes of The Office instead. It ends on a pretty depressing note, really. I hope the Christmas Special is better, because that's all I have left.

I guess those last few episodes might've had an impact on me. Now I feel all lonely and kinda sad. I need to start hanging out with my friends again. I also want a dog.

Short, Boring, Good

Today I didn't leave the house. I just stayed indoors, printed my résumé, ate some pancakes, started studying for my Bahasa Kebangsaan, and read stuff online. I'm writing this post early because I don't think anything interesting will happen in the evening, so I might as well get today's blog entry out of the way so that I'll have one less thing to do before my early bedtime (sometime between ten and twelve, hopefully).

I woke up at eleven so I got around nine hours of sleep. I wanted nine hours because yesterday I got eight hours and I still had to take a nap. I thought the extra hour would mean I wouldn't want to nap, but I still have the napping urge so I slept in for nothing, and now I'll have to figure out some way to kill the urge to nap or else I won't be tired enough for an early bedtime. I need to sleep early because I plan on waking up early so I can show up at 1 Tech Park for a walk-in interview and typing test and such.

Anyway, after I post this I'm going to do my exercises, and then I might re-install C&C Generals: Zero Hour or watch a movie or even play RuneScape if the internet connection holds out (it's been quite good today). That should keep me from falling asleep prematurely.

So yeah, nothing much to write about today, and it's actually quite nice.

Naps and a Goodbye

I had planned to study on Thursday but I only really need to memorize a few words so I guess I'll wait 'till Friday morning for that.

Aunty Rosie woke me this morning. I was lying on the couch in my day clothes. I realized that I had never actually woken up from my nap last night, so I still had exercises to do and a shower to take. I decided to nap some more.

After a while the room got too hot because someone had turned off the air conditioning and fans, so I went outside and slept on the couch there. I slept for a long while, and then I finally woke up to start my day by reading the Bible.

When I was done with that, I went on the computer for a while to check if my movies had downloaded. They had, and so now I had Batman Begins and Sphere on my computer. Hannah was on the couch reading my old blog posts and she kept finding typos, so I used my computer to go fix them. Once that was over I was about to start watching one of my recently downloaded movies when my dad called me out and told me he had another meeting, so I was going to have to drive him around again.

I had a time limit now, so I quickly did the exercises I had neglected to do the night before, and then I took a shower and got ready. After that I drove my dad to his meeting, and then I went to Ikea to pick up some more hot dogs. The hot dogs were okay, but they didn't have any onions, so I was back to eating them plain. I only had fifteen minutes to get everything done since I had parked in a temporary spot, but I still had a couple minutes after I was done eating, which I used to get an ice cream, which I ate on the way back to my dad's meeting.

There was still plenty of time left, so I listened to some songs on my phone while waiting. At one point my dad walked out of the building and tried to call me, and when I picked up I told him to look to his left, but he still didn't see me. He finally noticed when I sounded the horn, and he told me there was about ten minutes left, so I just listened to more music while browsing through the massive collection of funny and interesting pictures I had saved to my computer from the internet and from there transferred them from my computer to my phone.

After my dad's meeting was done we went home and I watched Batman Begins. Ken Watanabe was in it, as was Cillian Murphy as the main bad guy. Michael Caine is in it, and also The Dark Knight and Inception. Liam Neeson was in it but he's not in Inception, he's just awesome. Anyway it was a really good movie and I'm glad I watched it for the second time.

When the movie was half a minute from finishing, Hannah came in the room and started to annoy me. I ignored her but she did not notice that I was ignoring her on purpose, so she came and started tapping my shoulder. I told her that there was just half a minute left and I brought up the information bar to prove it, but when the movie was over and I turned around, she was gone. She has terrible timing.

I found Hannah in her room and I asked her for her 8GB thumb drive so that I could transfer some movies to her and have her transfer some movies to me (Hard Candy with Ellen Page and Peacock with Cillian Murphy), but she had lost it. I asked around for it but when I tried looking for it where I had last seen it, my dad started yelling at me for yelling so I had to sit down and endure the lecture until it was over. He gave me a 4GB thumb drive to keep so I made do with that.

I transferred the files and went on my computer, but the internet wasn't working and I was feeling sleepy so I turned it off and took a nap. When I woke up it was very close to nine, so I moved to my room so I could hear my alarm when it went off. I had set my alarm for nine so I would remember to go to Sentral to say goodbye to Elo, since at ten she was supposed to be meeting with a bunch of friends and me before she went back to Sarawak. Anyway, the alarm went off at nine but I was still tired so I set it for nine thirty and went back to sleep. I woke up a few minutes before it went off and went to wet my contact lenses freshen up and change my shirt, since all the naps had dried out my lenses and also made me kinda sweaty.

Hannah walked in when I was wetting my lenses and screamed because there weren't any lights on in the room, which made me scream because I didn't hear her come in. While I was explaining what I was doing, Ian, Jan, and El-Hanan walked in and we both screamed. It was kinda funny.

Anyway my alarm went off after that, so I borrowed Ian's car keys and drove over to Sentral. I was trying to find a place to park, but every place I saw all had signs warning of clamping and towing and fines, and since my dad had just gotten a ticket for parking at Sentral the other day I decided to just park in a legitimate parking garage. The hourly fee was bloody high though, four times what Ikea was charging.

I texted Elo to find out where the meeting spot was and she said it was the departures area. Elo spotted me when I arrived at departures and introduced me to her aunts and cousins who were waiting with her. Apparently they had been expecting Elo's other Shaun. I was able to clarify that I was KL Shaun before they left, since they had already been waiting an hour and were eager to go. I asked Elo why she hadn't just told us to meet at nine and she said that she only found out recently due to arriving early and bus schedules and other valid reasons that I have forgotten about.

Elo got a phone call from one of her siblings asking about a Liverpool t-shirt or something. Elo had been unable to find one and the person on the other end got upset while Elo was trying to explain and hung up. At least Hannah's never hung up on me before; sounds like something Jan might do, though. Anyway, I asked where Nirai was and Elo said she wasn't coming. Arun was running late, too. According to Elo, her bus left at 10:30, so they would have to hurry to arrive on time. While Elo was showing me her itinerary, she spotted Zac (I am so tempted to spell his name Zach but everyone types it Zac so I'll type it Zac) and a friend (I think his name was David or Daniel or something. Let's go with Daniel). She asked him why he was there and he said it was because he wanted to say goodbye to a friend. I thought that was quite a coincidence until he explained that the friend he wanted to say goodbye to was Elo. I think someone said "aww" at that point.

A little after Zac showed up, Elo spotted two of her other friends who she was giving a piece of luggage to since they were going back soon, too. I forgot their names but it was a chick and her boyfriend, who also looked like a chick. They were nice people. They were there for a few minutes when Arun showed up with Roshaan and Milan and maybe one or two other people. It had only been eight minutes since I had arrived, but we were running out of time to get dinner.

The new arrivals only stayed for a while before going outside for a smoke. Milan was the only one left behind since he didn't smoke. Zac and Daniel went outside, too, I think, even though they had already been out for a smoke since arriving. It's quite an inconvenient habit. Elo spoke to the friends who were taking her luggage, and she asked if Milan understood what they had said. He said he hadn't and I asked him why not since his BM must be up to snuff because he didn't have to sit for Bahasa Kebangsaan. I was told that it was because they were talking some kind of special Malay. I think they meant a dialect, but I prefer to think they were speaking in some secret Sarawakian code.

Anyway, after the guys came back from their smoke break, I ran to Burger King to get some fries and onion rings since I was hungry and Elo's bus was due to leave soon. When I got back, Milan and Arun had already taken the bags down to the bus and were waiting there. Elo got a call from them, so we all went to near the bus stop to say goodbye. Along the way, Elo mentioned that her phone's battery was low, so I offered to swap batteries with her since we had the exact same model phone, but she declined since she said she could recharge the phone there. I do kind of remember a multi-charger point at the airport when I went to pick up the Tans.

Above the bus stop, we stood around waiting for the goodbyes to begin. We were delayed when one of us mistook a stranger's luggage for the one that Elo was giving to her friends, but the person who made that mistake wasn't me so it was funny. Anyway, Elo said goodbye to Zac and Roshaan and her two luggage buddies. She was going to say goodbye to me, too, but I told her that I was going to have to pay for a full hour when I left so I might as well stay for a full hour. Elo said that she wanted to spend some time alone with Arun before she left, so I said I would leave when Milan left.

We went down to look for Elo's bus, but the taxi people had said that the last bus to the LCCT was supposed to leave at 10:00. The bus had obviously left late enough that Elo's bags were on it, but not late enough for her to be on it. We tried to think up other ways to get to the airport before her bags (train, taxi, another bus) and I offered to drive her, but she said that she didn't need to hurry since the bus people would sort things out since that was what they were paid to do. Elo has a lot more trust in the system than I do.

Elo spotted Arun and tried to call to him, but he was too far away to hear her. I was hoping that she would try running to him while calling his name and then he'd turn around in slow motion and they'd run into each other's arms as triumphant music played, but reality is not that dramatic so instead she called him with her phone and told him to turn around.

When he caught up to her he said that the bus driver had agreed to go one round with the bags so he would be stopping by again, which was very good news for Elo since she could take the bus ride she had paid for. I asked where Milan was and Arun said that he was already gone, which meant it was time for me to go, too. Elo gave me a hug and we said goodbye and she said she'd see me again in a short while, but for her a short while was three years. "I think I can wait" was my reply. I wonder if I could have come up with some better parting words.

I rode the escalator back up and saw a Dutch family struggling to get their luggage in the lift. I walked in and held the doors for them while they got everything inside. I thought it would have been weird to walk out of the lift at that point, so I just rode it down with them. On the way down the lady asked if I knew where the bus to KLIA was. I had seen it earlier when I was looking for Elo's bus, but I didn't remember seeing it when the lady asked me, so I wasn't much help. The taxi people were saying all the buses had left already so she would have to take a taxi, and for some reason I believed them. I listed the other ways she could have gotten to the airport (train, bus to LCCT and then shuttle, taxi if you're okay with getting ripped off), but then she spotted the bus to the KLIA and I felt very foolish. She thanked me anyway and so I said "Tot ziens" and she said "Tot ziens" back, and so I felt less foolish.

The whole time that was happening, Elo and Arun were a few feet away since the lift was right next to where their bus had arrived. I figured that we already said everything that we wanted to say and any more goodbyes would be awkward (like what happened with the Tans), so I just got in the lift and left without acknowledging their presence. Maybe if I was really, really lucky, they didn't notice me.

I felt kinda lonely on my drive home since Carmeni had left and Elo had left and now my only good friend left was Amanda. I had forgotten about Joanna for some reason. I wish I would have remembered her, it would have made things feel a little less lonely.

Anyway, when I got home I had already made up my mind to procrastinate my studying for my Tugasan until the morning. I asked Ian where the rest of the rum that I had paid for for his birthday was, and he told me my dad had drank it. That was my rum. Oh well, at least I know where all the rum had gone.

My phone was still playing music on random, and at one point it started playing Eye of the Tiger which got me really pumped and and I managed to do twelve real push-ups. I'm usually only able to do four. I shouldn't really be surprised that that song has great motivating powers. Anyway I did the rest of my exercises and took a shower and wrote this and now I'm tired and almost ready for bed.

I wonder how many mistakes Hannah will find in this post.

The Second Day that I've Put Off Studying for My Ujian Lisan, the Second Day I Haven't Cared

I took a shower early, but I still feel alive and not very tired, so I will blog. Thursday was a short day, anyway.

I woke up at 11am to what sounded like an alarm, but it was just my phone ringing. I picked it up right after the person on the other end hung up. It was my mum. I tried calling her back, but I couldn't reach her. After a minute of trying I went back to bed.

I later found out that she had been trying to reach Aunty Rosie, but Aunty Rosie was out of the house because Ian's motorcycle had broken down and he needed a ride back. My mum called Hannah instead, but Hannah fell asleep before she could relay my mum's message back to Aunty Rosie.

I woke up again at one o'clock because Ian and Jared barged in the room and began behaving very inconsiderately. I don't wake Ian or Jan up unless my parents ask me to or I want them to do something for me. Ian woke us up because he felt like it. We had only been sleeping since 4:45.

I tried falling back to sleep, but I couldn't dream because Ian and Jared kept talking, so I went downstairs to get ready for the day. As I left the room I told Ian that he was obnoxious and I told Jared that he was Jared.

I didn't fall asleep during my daily Bible reading. Hannah and Stefanie had just finished getting ready, so they were all dressed and ready to go somewhere. I went back in the room to take a shower, but I had to wait for Ruben and Jan to finish first. When I went in the bathroom there was an electric razor there. Ruben is thirteen. He does not need to travel with an electric razor. This is ridiculous.

Anyway, after my shower I read the newspaper and then I drove Jan, Hannah, Ruben and Stefanie to Mahbub for breakfast. Hannah wanted to go eat at Devi's because they have chapati and Stefanie wanted chapati, but I said that you can get chapati in the Netherlands and Devi's is crap anyway, plus I was driving so we would be eating at Mahbub.

Mahbub was okay. I had my first roti bom in ages. It was pretty dang tasty. Breakfast was only four ringgit per person, so that was awesome, too. I was worried that we might have worried the waiter because Stefanie and Hannah were being quite condescending, but none of our food or drink seemed spat in so I guess we were okay.

I was going to drive home, but the rest of them wanted to go to Mid Valley to watch a movie, so I took us to Mid Valley to watch a movie. The plan was supposed to be that they would go up and get tickets for Inception while I found a parking spot, but while I was searching for a place I got a call saying that the only Inception showing was a long way away so they were going to watch Salt instead. It's a good thing that the lady at the parking payment counter let me leave for free, otherwise I would have gotten quite pissed off at pointlessly circling the lot for fifteen minutes.

When I got back home there was nobody around. Hannah's room was still cool, so I brought Faith in and took a nap on the guest bed on the spare spare pillow (Stefanie was using the spare pillow. The difference between the spare and the spare spare was that the former has a cover) while the soundtrack for Inception played from Hannah's laptop in the background. I woke up right when Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien started playing, and the first thing I said was "No, it's too soon." It was my best nap in a long while. Faith was still sleeping on Hannah's pillow, so I let him be.

After the nap I went on my computer for a while, but then the internet got really slow and I got a call from Jan asking to pick them up, so I left. There was no jam when we drove home. It was weird, since it was seven, which was the same time as when we left for the airport the day before and got stuck in a jam for an hour. I still took the short cut, even though it probably had become the scenic route due to the lack in traffic on the normal road.

When we got home I went upstairs to drop off some keys and grab a book. After checking that nothing tasty was being made for dinner, I went back downstairs for some carbonara. The waiter told me that they were out of beef bacon, so I had to settle for chicken in my spaghetti. It was still delicious, but not as savoury. Also they were out of normal coke so I had to have a diet coke instead. The meal only cost eleven ringgit, though, so that was nice. Pity that it's closing. There was a sushi restaurant that used to take up the same spot, but it didn't last very long either. None of them can compete with Restaurant Emas, especially not when they're sharing seating. Oh well.

When I got back upstairs, the girls wanted to swim. It was night, but whatever. They told us to come later since they'd be taking pictures first, so Ruben, Jan, and I watched the European Championship in Barcelona for a while. There was this weird 3000 metre event with hurdles that we spent most of our time watching. Everyone in it was so thin. Ruben said that the winners would be either Russian or Polish, Jan said they would either be Spanish or German, and I said they would either French or Ukrainian, but Ukraine didn't have any runners so I went with Slovakia instead. Or Slovenia. Whatever, the race was won by a pair of Frenchman and a Spaniard, in that order. This clearly shows that I am better than my brother, and also that the French are good runners or whatever.

We went down to swim. Susanna joined us in her underwear. Aunty Rosie told us that the girls were in the playground, so I went to play on the swings. When I got there Hannah told me that she was changing. She was trying to put on her one-piece under her dress. I asked her why she was changing in public and not in the toilets, which were right underneath us, but she never answered me. I bet it was Stefanie's idea. First she didn't ask me to look away yesterday, and now this. I'm starting to think that she may be an exhibitionist.

Anyway, I didn't do much swimming. I wanted to wrestle Jan by the poolside so that I could chuck him in a few times and humiliate him in front of his friends. He said he was scared of getting scratched, so I told him we'd try to get each other to fall in without using our arms. He agreed to that. I think the score was 7-5 in his favour before we got tired. Whatever, I could do better if I wanted to.

Susanna was making a spectacle of herself by wearing her underwear really high. We just did our best to keep her in the water until Aunty Rosie came and saved us from Susanna's cameltoe. Whose idea was it to let her swim in her underwear in the first place?

I spent a lot of time trying to get Hannah annoyed so I could show Stefanie the magic of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Hannah didn't make it easy for me, she started being all forgiving and patient. I finally managed to make her slip up, though, and while she was mad at me I said his name, which caused Hannah to immediately shut up and start grinning like an idiot. Stefanie was highly amused.

Stefanie tried doing laps, but it was boring. I swam one length of the pool underwater. Ruben asked if I could do two. I said I used to be able to do two, but I'm out of practice so my maximum is maybe one and a half. Stefanie gave up on laps, so we kind of just floated around by the edge of the pool and talked. Stef was wearing a bikini, so I asked how she got such an awesome stomach, since despite my many months of fake sit-ups I have yet to develop a six-pack. She told me that she did PE everyday in school, and when they don't have PE, she runs, which is also why she is the only person I know whose thighs don't look at all fat. That sounded like way too much work. I think I'm lucky to have a solid stomach after what little daily exercise I get. A six-pack is probably asking too much.

Jan and Ruben went upstairs, but not before commenting on how gross my legs looked. I am a walking example of why you should not shave while bored. You get carried away and soon hair is missing from places it should not be missing and then it will re-grow all funny and no matter how many years pass you will never look normal again. This is why I never leave the house in trousers that go any higher than my ankles.

After Jan and Ruben were gone, Hannah, Stefanie, and I played The Platypus Game. I used to think Stefanie was smart, and I guess she still is, but her knowledge on important things was just as limited as Saundra's was. I soon fixed that by telling her the same thing I had told the girls on Hannah's birthday. Hannah helped me out a bit with the lecture this time around, I think. Anyway, the amount of boys that Stef had kissed was a surprise to me. I would say more but Hannah would kill me.

We went upstairs at nine. Along the way, we saw Ian, Hanan, Ruben, and Jan. They were going to a cybercafe because our internet wasn't working. It is now, though, and they still aren't back, so I guess I saved some money by not going with them.

Hannah and Stefanie watched Kick-Ass when we got home and I did my exercise while I watched a program about the world's deepest mine in South Africa. It was pretty awesome. I went to take a shower and I missed a part where the host got to load a couple million dollars worth of gold bars into a vault. Oh well.

After that I went online and I wrote this post. Earlier on today I had envisioned myself elaborating on Wednesday's blog post, but I can't remember anything particularly noteworthy and I'm not in the mood to review that day all over again, so I guess that's that. Oh! Elo mentioned not to mention the secret messages in her latest secret message, so don't make any mention my mention of secret messages in the previous blog post. Just pretend that that message is now secret.

I'd Go for the Slightest Reason

So the past two days I've gone to HELP. Yesterday I went for a meeting, and today I went to help Elo with some homework. The meeting ended up lasting less than five minutes, and I knew less about Elo's homework than she did, so I wasn't much help. Still, I had fun.

Yesterday started with me waking up at six, putting my alarm on snooze for ten minutes, waking up again, turning off the alarm for good, falling asleep on the couch, falling asleep during my Bible reading, falling asleep after my Bible reading, then finally waking up at around eleven to actually start the day.

I think I started with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The peanut butter was crunchy because smooth is boring, and the jelly was actually jam because nobody calls it jelly. Actually, the sandwich might have happened on another day, but I've made mistakes due to memory before on this blog and I'm hardly going to go back and correct them. Anyway, after the sandwich I climbed the stairs, then I took a shower, then I got dressed, then I grabbed my bag and left. Jared had given me a couple of Adrian Mole books to read because he said that my blog reminded him of them, so I had those in my bag along with The World is Flat, which was a book by Thomas L. Friedman that I've been slowly re-reading over the past few months.

When I got to college, I had a very brief chat with Elo and a bunch of other people. They were watching a gay black guy answer questions and dis Airplanes. I like Airplanes. Anyway after my very brief conversation I went to my meeting, since it was scheduled for twelve thirty and it was already twelve twenty-something. While I was walking to the meeting I wondered why the gayest gays always seemed to be black. I don't have anything against either of those groups, I was just wondering why the gayness got so much more potent when you combined them. Oh well, I guess it's just one of those things.

None of the people I was supposed to be meeting were at the DSA, so I made a few calls and tried texting them for a second time (I had texted them once before I left). I could only reach Mun Lee, and she that said she was on the way. In the meantime I decided to sit down and read Jared's books.

I found a place next to Roshaan and Deborah. They were working on Roshaan's reflective writing assignment for his Psychology, which was due that day. A bit last minute, but it turned out okay in the end. I offered my comments every once in a while. I'd like to think I helped.

The book was quite good. It was like The Princess Diaries, but more masculine, and more 80s, and more British. Actually the only element it had in common was that it was also a diary. Whatever, it was good.

Lee Kening told me that she was on her way home already since she hadn't known about the meeting, so I told her not to worry and that things would be fine so long as I got Roy's and her parts of the assignment before Wednesday. Mun Lee showed up and gave me her bit of the assignment. After the files were on my thumb drive, there wasn't much left to do, so she left.

I spent a bit more time reading, and I left when Roshaan left. As I was walking back, Carmeni spotted me, and we walked and talked for a short while. I told her that I had been waiting for her when I arrived, and she said that she had been free from 12:30 to 2:00, which was unfortunate since two o'clock had just arrived. Before she went to class I tried to make plans to see Inception after finals. She said that as long as I notified her three days beforehand she should be free to watch.

I rode home and didn't do much. I watched Man on Wire, which is highest rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes after Toy Story 2. It was indeed quite good. I also listened to a bunch of podcasts and played some RuneScape. Oh yeah, also I drove Hannah out to get some Five gum because she said that my blog post had made them sound so good. She got the fruity flavour and let me have two pieces for RM1. It was delicious.

I stayed up late and watched So You Think You Can Dance. I did my exercises during the commercial breaks. I started watching just after Jeanine's couple performance, and the rain killed the signal right before her trio performance. Her solo was quite nice, though. After TV I took a shower, then I went to bed. It was a really nice rest.

Earlier on the night I had been chatting with Elo online. She said that she was having trouble writing her Physics report, so I suggested she take a nap to help clear her head and get her more relaxed and focused. She did, and it kinda worked. I told her that I'd come by the next morning to see how I could help her out.

The next morning I was up at nine. I read my Bible and took a nap while Aunty Rosie fried up some pork sausages. I had been really hungry the whole of yesterday, so I asked my dad if we could have the imported sausages for breakfast today, and he said yes. Unfortunately this meant that I had to turn down Elo's offer of breakfast before homework, but I guess that just means I saved some money. The sausages weren't the kind I was expecting. They weren't the sweet, super-tasty sizzlers; they were just better-than-normal pork sausages. We should have saved them for a barbecue.

After breakfast I took a shower. Sometimes the morning showers are shockingly cold, sometimes they are tolerable. I wish they would stay consistent. Morning showers are the second good habit I've picked up from my college friends. I do my 100 push-ups and sit-ups every night because a while ago Amanda told me how she had done push-ups every day for months and ended up with a rock-hard stomach, which I was envious. I think my stomach's gotten harder, but I can hardly go back for reference, so I guess we'll never know.

Anyway, once I got to HELP I found Elo and the rest (Nirai and Li Ying and Kaminie, if I remember correctly, which I probably don't) at their usual spot. I squeezed in through some wires and sat next to Elo. She tried to explain her report to me, but it was about circuits and I sucked at circuits, so I just sat dumbly and offered vague advice. I'd like to think that my presence was a morale boost, but I think my ignorance of the subject just worried Elo even more.

After a while, Kaminie and Elo decided to go to McDonald's, so I followed. Along the way I talked about MTV World Stage. I found out that even Li Ying had read my blog, but Elo hadn't. I'm surprised at the amount of people who do read this. Everything is so long.

Elo and I didn't order anything at McDonald's. It was the worst time for McDonald's, anyway; that dreadful period between eleven o'clock and twelve o'clock where you can't order breakfast any more but there's still no discount from the lunch menu. Kaminie got a meal, and after a while she decided to share her fries with us, so that was nice.

We stopped off at the post office on the way back. Elo wanted to ask a question about mailing some stuff back home instead of taking it with her on the plane, but there was a line and stuff and she felt she didn't have enough time, so we left. If it wasn't for the line I might have also seen about getting my license renewed.

I found out that the girls both had classes at the KPD, so they were going to take the bus. I asked why they didn't just bring their bags with them to McDonald's, since it would have saved them half a trip, and the answer was that they hadn't thought of it. Oh well, it was a short walk anyway. We got our stuff and went to the bus stop. The bus was already there, so our conversation was cut short. Even though it was only twelve hours ago, I've already forgotten what it was about.

Anyway, I said goodbye and got on my motorcycle. Kaminie waved to me from the bus window, so I acknowledged her. The rest of the ride was like hundreds (have I ridden back from HELP more than a hundred times? Probably. Wow) before it, so there's nothing much to say there.

When I got back, Ferris Bueller's Day Off had finished downloading, so I watched that. When I was half an hour in, I saw a bit in a scene that allowed me to get a reference that I had read a long while ago. I like it when that kind of thing happens. Shortly afterwards, Hannah came inside to get me to drive her to pick up Audrey so they could go watch Salt. I told her to wait a moment, so she did, and then after a moment was over we got our stuff and we left.

Aunty Rosie told us her car was out of fuel, so I called my dad to confirm that Ian was with him on the way to Ipoh. When I found out that he was, I took Ian's keys so we could use his Spectra instead. When we got to the car, we found that it was also empty. Oh well, at least it was a nicer car than a Kancil.

Our first stop was an Esso. Since Hannah was the one who wanted to go out, she was the one who paid for the petrol. We only got RM10 worth. The needle barely moved. When I was walking back to the pump after paying, I noticed that the car had a nasty scratch on its side. I hope Ian was the one who was using the car when that happened. I don't remember scraping against anything on the way to the petrol station anyway.

From the station we took what would have been a short cut, except that an ill-placed sign led us into a cul-de-sac, so we were delayed a bit. We got to Audrey's house eventually, though, and it wasn't hard to get to 1 Utama from there.

As I was driving back after dropping the girls off, I noticed that it was almost two o'clock, so the Kaminie and Elo's classes would just be finishing. I was right near the KPD, so I called them to see if they wanted a ride back. Kaminie was still working on an assignment, but Elo was up for it. The flow of traffic had changed a few months ago for the area, so I struggled for a bit to figure out how to get to where I needed to be, but I got there eventually. I pulled up outside the bus stop right as Teenage Dream finished playing on the radio. I was hoping I would arrive in time for Elo to hear it since it tied in with the World Stage conversation from earlier, but it was not to be. Oh well. We talked about her report during the very short drive to the main block. Elo said that Mr Naj had clarified some things, so she would be able to finish it in time to hand it in tomorrow, so that was nice.

After dropping Elo off, I drove back home. It felt like my first time driving into and out of HELP's parking lot in a car, but I've just remembered New Year's Eve so it was actually the second time. First time on a school day, though.

When I got back home I finished Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It was a good movie. I started watching the second episode of Sherlock (A new BBC series about Sherlock Holmes in the modern day. It's awesome), but I felt like a nap halfway through. When I woke up again it was six o'clock. I watched a bit more Sherlock, but I got a call from Hannah. I told her to buy some fries for me because I'd be there soon to pick her up.

Traffic is terrible in the city at six o'clock, so it took me longer than I thought it would. I figured Hannah and Audrey would have started snacking on my fries, and was mentally preparing myself for a half-empty fry packet when I arrived. I pulled up the mall right as Teenage Dream finished playing on the radio. I was hoping I would arrive in time for Hannah to hear it since it would be her first time ever hearing it on the radio, but it was not to be.

I wanted to head straight home to have dinner before dropping Audrey off later in the night when traffic got better, but Audrey said that she had to be home at seven for dinner. We were stuck in traffic for a long time. Audrey told me we could have avoided it all if I had taken a left instead of a right, so I asked her why she didn't tell me so earlier when I was merging into the right lane in preparation for a right turn. She said she thought I knew of a shorter way to her house. Silly girl. Anyway, while in the jam she showed me a video of Hannah eating a burger. She hyped it up a lot, but in the end it was just Hannah eating a burger (and some fries). I still thought it was funny, though.

After a lot of traffic we finally ended up at Audrey's house. We dropped her off and drove home. We were using my mum's car since it actually had fuel in it, but she needed it back. Along the way home I told Hannah a secret the same way she told me secrets: I made her promise not to tell anyone with threats of unequal retribution of she did, then told her I was going to tell her, then I changed my mind at the last moment, and right when she decided that she didn't want to hear it anyway because the consequences of letting it slip were too grave, I told her. The only difference is that when Hannah tells me a secret it's always something minor that I already know, but Hannah was surprised by mine. Whatever, it's nothing major.

When we got home I went down to the restaurant to give my mum her keys. She had some leftover carbonara on the table, so I ate that. It was still warm and really delicious. As we were walking upstairs my mum told me that the restaurant where the carbonara came from would be closing soon. I decided to visit it sometime soon for one last bowl of carbonara. I love carbonara.

Back at home Hannah showed me all the new underwear that she had bought. I also noticed that she hadn't been wearing a bra the whole day because there was no way to hide the straps with the new shirt that she had been wearing. Jan joined the conversation, which soon became about how Hannah was growing up too fast and how she was too young for everything. It was funny.

After dinner I finished watching Sherlock, then I compiled a bunch of Bahasa Kebangsaan stuff which I'll be printing on Wednesday, then I pasted some movies on what I had previously thought was a broken thumb drive, then I wrote this post and it didn't take half as long as I thought it would, so that was nice.

Gyah, I Itch!

I fell asleep on the couch a bit earlier on and when I woke up the Discovery Channel was airing a show about the guy in Indonesia with the tree-like warts all over his body and I felt all itchy all over and that feeling hasn't passed. Ugh, that's unbearably gross.

Anyway, much earlier I had breakfast in McDonald's after my Finite Mathematics was over. It was pretty tasty. I actually ate in McDonald's twice; the second time was with Amanda when she went for lunch. I had fries and a medium drink for the first time in a long time. Usually I just get large. I wanted an ice cream but the machine was broken, so I settled for a drink.

I met Kenneth from my condominium when I was walking to my Physics lab. We didn't have any experiments in Physics today, so Mr Naj just showed us some of the equipment in the lab. I played with a slinky for a bit and then I went back to the main block early so I could take a nap.

Psychology was fun. We were learning about sexual motivation today, so that was of course an interesting subject that everyone enjoyed.

When I got back home I finished the last remaining three episodes of Glee. I drove Hannah and Jan to McDonald's and now Hannah will finally let me read the seventh book, which is excellent. She has two free ride coupons from me, though.

Oh yeah, Carmeni watched Zombieland the other day, so now I'm obliged to watch New Moon as soon as she gets me the DVD. Should be fun to mock.

Whoa, a Concert

I woke up from a really weird dream this morning. It involved placebos and a bomb and a wedding and people I know and people I don't and other stuff. I wrote it all down because it might be useful for my Psychology dream journal.

I had a meeting for the HMC Rush Race at college. It was at 12:30, and I arrived at college at 12:45. I spent a while searching for the meeting, and I only found out later that I had passed it on the way in. Anyway, it turns out the comedic sketch has been replaced by a talent show, so I dropped out of the committee. I won't be in HELP any more when the event is held, anyway.

After the meeting, I took a nap. It was quite brief. I then bought some chips from Giant. They both weighed the same, but one was one ringgit while the other was two-fifty. The cheap one was pretty lame.

I finished one packet of chips and drove to refill my motorcycle. All the pumps were closed when I arrived, but they were opened just as I was leaving. The fuel only cost RM5, so that was nice.

At home I shared my chips with Hannah and Susanna and then I went on the computer for a bit. After a while, Hannah came in and told me that there was a free Boys Like Girls concert being held at Bukit Kiara. I told her to get ready because we were definitely going.

Unfortunately, all our cars were unavailable, so we had to take a cab. It was really jammed and cost ten ringgit to get there.

Once we were there we squeezed ourselves into line and waited for a bit, and when we got in we squeezed ourself as close to the front as we could. We got pretty close. After about an hour of waiting, a couple of DJs came on and played a mish-mash of popular music. I was pretty disappointed when they played Smells Like Teen Spirit without lyrics.

Anyway, the DJs finished and we were introduced to our host, who was someone famous that I did not recognize. The first thing he introduced was the president of Nokia, whose accent led me to believe he was South African or something. He talked about phones and music for a bit, and then he left to let the show continue.

The opening acts weren't as good as at the Digi concert with the All-American Rejects. Pretty much all the songs were in either Bahasa Malaysia or Chinese, and I didn't recognize any of the bands. Also a few people near the front fainted, so everyone got to move just a little bit closer.

When Boys Like Girls finally started playing, everyone was very happy. Their opening song was a cover of I Gotta Feeling, which then transitioned into Love Drunk. They played a bunch of songs that I knew and a bunch that I didn't, and they ended with The Great Escape. Martin Johnson climbed into the crowd and sang the second last song on someone's shoulders, and through all the songs picks and water bottles were being thrown into the crowd. A pick bounced off my head and fell on the floor, where it stayed for a little while before I found it. That was nice. Later, another pick bounced off my head. I spent considerably longer looking for it, but I couldn't find it. Hannah went searching and she came up with it, so we both had picks. That was nice. I carried Hannah on my back for a bit during The Great Escape, but after the first verse there was too much pushing so I put her down. I wanted to jump around anyway.

After the show was over, water bottles and picks and towels and drum sticks were all thrown into the crowd. Hannah caught Martin Johnson's towel, but a bunch of other girls caught it, too. They decided to cut it up and split it. We lost the girls, though, so Hannah never got her piece of towel. Oh well, at least she got a pick. She also found a one ringgit note on the floor, and I found a lighter. There were also a pair of shorts and a shirt on the floor.

When everything was over, we gave Ian a call and he came to pick us up. I didn't end the concert as thirsty as I thought I would. That was nice.

Um, we also met some other HELP students at the concert. They were doing their A-levels. I can't be arsed to slot that in the proper place of this post. It's late.

Zaps and Naps

I woke up on the couch yesterday because that was where I had fallen asleep. I wasn't woken by my alarm as usual, though. I somehow woke up on my own around four minutes before my alarm was supposed to ring. I took a shower and went over to college. There were replacement classes at HELP because February 1st is a holiday. I brought the laser pointer that I bought at Petaling Street along.

Psychology was okay. Joanna and Denise weren't around, so I asked Carmeni if she wanted to play with the laser, but she had read my blog and knew what it was. Anyway, we learned about sleep and dreams. Appropriately enough, I kinda dozed off a bit during the class.

When class finished I met up with a bunch of my friends, and all of them except Carmeni zapped themselves with the laser pointer. That was funny. We went to Ali Maju's for breakfast and were joined by a few more people, who also all ended up zapping themselves. After breakfast, Amanda needed to break RM100, so I let her buy me some chips at Giant while I paid for her breakfast so that the cashier at Ali Maju's wouldn't get annoyed.

After I had my chips I went back to the hall. I joined a game of hide-and-seek, but we only managed to play one round before the class was claimed for a lecture. Instead, we sat around pointing the laser at people who would come over and ask to play with it, and then we would laugh as they zapped themselves. Arun was the guy who was provoking people to get zapped most of the time. He was pretty good at it. Anyway, this went on for an hour or so. It was very funny. There were a few people who could stand the shock, and even one guy who didn't even feel it, but for the most part the reactions were pretty hilarious, and because the voltage was so minor, everyone was good-natured about it afterwards. We even managed to shock a lecturer.

Eventually the hall got pretty empty, so I took a nap. When I woke up I got a few more people to zap themselves, and then I went over to my Physics class.

I got all my classmates except one to shock themselves, and I got Mr Naj to shock himself, too. Class was okay. I ate my chips while working on problems about spring constants and waves. I finished half an hour early and went home.

At home I watched Religulous and Up in the Air on Ian's computer. They was pretty good; pretty funny. I also took a lot of naps. I did my exercises while watching Time Warp with Jan. I went to bed without blogging because I was pretty tired.

Today I didn't do much. We went to church and my dad tried to get us to fix the internet connection to Hannah's room, but we didn't get far with that. We did make some progress, but ultimately it's still broken. I took a lot of naps.

Apparently Hannah thinks I'm going to get her a Seventeen subscription for her birthday. It's something like seventy ringgit. I wish she was just content with chocolate and jelly beans, like last year. Dang.

I Should Remember What Is and Isn't Worth Eating

Today I woke up and took my time getting ready for Christian Fellowship. There was going to be a welcome to CF party later on. I was on the computer until twelve thirty, which was when it was supposed to start. Since I was bound to be late I decided to help Hannah drop off Yii Huei instead.

Yii Huei had to drop off some stuff at home before going to her friend's house so they could go watch a movie together, so I went with Hannah to drive her to those places. When we arrived at her friend's house we said goodbye because it would be the last time we saw her unless she came visited us after coming back from Penang.

Hannah and I went to eat at Popeyes because I had a craving for it. It was pretty tough to find a place to park, so I was grateful when we found an empty lot. It was near a parking machine that I couldn't figure out how to work, so we didn't pay.

We had to find an ATM before we could eat. While we were looking for one, Hannah convinced me to pay for her meal. She was the one who spotted the Maybank ATMs, though, so I guess she earned it.

Popeyes was okay. It was really filling, so even though I only had a biscuit, some mashed potatoes, and two pieces of chicken, I still couldn't finish everything I ordered. Hannah couldn't finish what I had got for her either. We only had a little bit leftover, though, so that was nice, at least. Anyway I don't think I'll be eating at Popeyes again unless I want more biscuits or mashed potatoes. Actually, I'm not sure why I came to that conclusion. The chicken skin is crispier than most places, and the meat's a lot more succulent. It's also priced around the same as KFC. Hm. Maybe I will eat in Popeyes again. I'll make sure I'm really hungry before I do, though, so I don't waste any food.

When we got home, I took a nap. When I woke up I watched a In The Loop on Ian's computer. It was good. After that I claimed the massage that Hannah said she'd give me if I paid for her meal. I then remembered that I hadn't walked the stairs even though it was Friday, so I went and did that. When that was over I was pretty tired, so I took another nap. When I woke up from that one I turned on the TV and did some exercise while watching a drama on the new Astro channel. It was called Half Broken Things and it was pretty good, too.

Anyway tomorrow I've got replacement classes at college. Also I'm apparently supposed to keep a dream journal for Psychology. Should be fun.

My birthday seems to be really really close. I wonder what I should ask for. I wonder where I want to eat dinner. I wonder if I should have a tiny party.

I Drove and Drove and Drove

Jan had to go to a BB meeting after church, so I volunteered to drive him. First, however, we stopped over at a corner shop for some lunch. When we were sitting down at our table I noticed that Elo was having lunch with some people one table over, and my mum noticed that her doctor was at another close table. We said hi. That was a nice coincidence.

When we got home it was apparent that we had spent a bit too long having lunch and so Jan was going to be late. I took the keys to Ian's car and dropped Jan off at the YMCA, which is where he had said the meeting was going to be. On my way home, he called and said that the meeting was actually at Wesley Methodist Church, so I turned around and picked him up. I got lost on the way there, so I asked Jan to call Ian so he could use Google Earth to guide us there. Ian failed, so Jan called and said he would be really late and was told that if that was the case he didn't need to go, so I drove him home.

When I got back home I barely had time to settle down before I got a call from Audrey asking me to pick Hannah up from her house in half an hour. I looked up her address on Google Earth and said told her it was entirely doable. An hour later I remembered where I had to be and got in the car and drove to pick Hannah up.

I arrived at the road, but then I realized I wasn't given a house number. I called my mum to ask for Audrey's phone number so I could call and ask which house it was, but as I was talking to my mum I saw a bunch of girls with a bunch of dogs leave a house. As they got closer I recognized them as Audrey, Hannah, Ebony, and Audrey's sister. That was good timing.

I got out of the car and walked the dogs with them. Ebony and I took our dogs far ahead of the rest, but I stopped for a rest while the others caught up. Audrey told me I shouldn't've sat where I was sitting because the person who owned the house I was in front of did not like dogs. Later on she told me that that person was Anwar Ibrahim. We also saw one of the cop cars that patrolled the area every half hour because of that.

At Audrey's house I had some pop tarts and sat around playing with a hamster because Hannah didn't want to go yet. We finally left when my dad called and said that she had to be home immediately because she had had a long day. Ebony came home with us because I had offered to drive her home, too.

I barely had time to hang up the car keys before my dad asked me to go drive him to Mid Valley so he could pick up a thing to fix a door. I managed to drag Jan along with me and buy enough time for a quick nap. On the way back from Mid Valley we wanted to stop off at Sin Kee for dinner, but the restaurant was too crowded, so we resolved to come back later after I had dropped Ebony off.

Ebony didn't know where exactly her house was, so I told her to get the address and look it up on Google Earth. She only managed to get the general area, but that didn't matter because she told me that she could direct me once I got to Tropicana Mall, and I can get there without a map.

After Hannah and I dropped Ebony off we went to meet my dad and Jan at Sin Kee. The food had just arrived when we got there. They were out of chicken chops because it was closing time, but the pork chop that I got instead was good enough.

Back home Hannah finally gave me the massage she promised me for driving her to and from Sunway a while back. For all the delay, it was merely okay. Audrey had told her about Paranormal Activity and she was scared, so she moved over to my parents' room to sleep that night, and so I got to read my Psychology textbook in her beanbag. It was very comfortable.

My first Monday at college starts in eight hours. Should be fun.

First Day of the Decade

The 1st of January 2010 was similar to the 1st of January 2009 and 2008 in that my family spent an hour or so around noontime watching CNN's coverage of Times Square on New Year's Eve with Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper. It was fairly funny and a nice, lazy way to start the day, the year, and the decade.

In the afternoon, Ian, Jan, Ruben, and I went to a CC with Kenneth and Joel to play Left 4 Dead 2. Versus in that game is really fun.

When we got home I took a nap, and when I woke up Colin and Nicholas were here, along with their parents, because we were having a barbecue. It took me a while, but eventually I woke up enough to drive to 7-Eleven with the guys to get some drinks and snacks. In the middle of the meal I got a call from Hannah asking me to pick her and Stefanie up from Mid Valley. I told Hannah I'd be there in a bit because first I wanted to show the guys the roof. Jan and Ruben climbed to the top with me, but Colin and Nick chose to stay more grounded.

Hannah and Stefanie asked me to take them to 7-Eleven, so for the third time in the day, I did. They are rather loud passengers, though, and Stef kept trying to switch the channel to R&B bullshit or whatever.

Later on at around 1am at night, when everyone had left, I went swimming. When I got to the pool I saw a guard up in the building telling me I couldn't go swimming since it was past ten. I told him that I'd been going swimming after ten for the past month. He told me I still couldn't swim, so I told him I'd be real quick. He had his eye on me the whole time. When I was done I checked the rules. There wasn't anything on the board about a closing time for the pool.

When I got back upstairs I did a hundred sit-ups while Jan played Carnivores 2, which is one of the old games we downloaded recently. Jan found out a way to adjust the graphics to make the guns shinier and to make blood come out of the dinosaurs when he shot them. I can't wait to try those settings on my computer later.

I think today (Tuesday) I will be going to watch Avatar in 3D. Also the sit-ups I did tonight will hopefully be the first of many that I will be doing for a long while. Amanda inspired me to try and get a six-pack. I might add push-ups to the routine later, I dunno.

I've spent almost three-quarters of my High Distinction reward money already. Hm.